


To Help Take Care

by BornToFly02



Series: Alec's Numbers [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Alec Lightwood Needs A Hug, Anxiety, Depression, Domestic Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Parents Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Rafe and Max don't really understand, but that's okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:22:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24082003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BornToFly02/pseuds/BornToFly02
Summary: A few years after their marriage Magnus and Alec have adopted two young boys. The little whiteboards scattered around the apartment are bound to be noticed at some point.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Max Lightwood-Bane, Alec Lightwood & Rafael Lightwood-Bane, Magnus Bane & Max Lightwood-Bane, Magnus Bane & Rafael Lightwood-Bane, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Alec's Numbers [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737313
Comments: 4
Kudos: 247





	To Help Take Care

Magnus never thought he'd ever truly be a parent. Sure over the centuries he had taken various downworlders under his wing that he considered his children, but he had never thought he'd raise a child from infancy. Fast forward to his relationship with Alec and he found himself with two sons.

Rafael had just turned 5 and Max was 3. Alec was at work that day and Magnus was trying to make a potion for a client when he heard his sons giggling in another room. After three years of parenthood, the High Warlock of Brooklyn had learned that giggling was never a good sign as it often means they've gotten into something they shouldn't have.

"Rafe? Blueberry? What are you doing?"

Waving his hand absently, placing a stasis on the potion, Magnus moved toward the room he shared with his husband.

"Shhh. Shhh Rafe, Papa's coming." Max's cute little voice tried to whisper.

"Quiet Max, we are not doing anyting wrong."

"But-"

"And just what are you two up to?"

Rafe looked up with wide brown eyes while his little brother glared at him, little blue cheeks flushed an almost navy blue due to his frustration.

"I tolds you Papa was coming."

Both boys were sitting on the king size bed, a whiteboard between them, the number written on it (147) was shining with blue sparkles that showed up when Max used magic. The rest, while usually blank, was covered in dry erase marker drawings done presumably by his sons.

"Did either of you change that number."

"No, Rafe wanted to but I didn't let him." Max said with a proud smile.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Magnus sat next to them.

"Now boys, this is Daddy's special board."

"There's more than one in the house." Rafael said with an unimpressed look that he definitely learned from Alec.

"Yes but they're there for a reason. We have these whiteboards all over the place, even in the Institute, to remind Daddy of something important."

"What?"

"Well, Daddy doesn't remember to take care of himself all the time so what we do is we count how many days he remembers to... uh... take care of himself on these boards. It helps him remember to take care of himself. When Daddy forgets to take care of himself we put the number back to zero."

"'Cause Daddy's really stub-born." Max said cheerfully, prompting a laugh from Magnus.

"Yes, Daddy is stubborn. And when he sees that zero it makes him want to get that number higher."

"I know that these are Daddy's special boards, but can't we still decorate them?" Rafe asked with a pout, not wanting to erase his pictures.

Seeing his big brother's expression, Max quickly joined in to convince his Papa.

"Yeah, maybe pictures will help Daddy remember more?"

Magnus smiled and pulled them into a hug.

"Of course. But for now, let's put the whiteboard away, we should get some food into you two. Who wants pizza from Italy?"

Both boys cheered and ran out of the room, Max calling for his nephilim brother to slow down. Putting the board back in its place on the wall, Magnus gave himself a moment to just breathe. He and Alec had spoken about the younger man's chronic depression several times since they had first adopted Max three years earlier. Both of them knew the boys would learn about it eventually, one way or another. But for now he was satisfied with his explanation. It wasn't an outright lie but a truth that they could better understand at their age.

* * *

A couple months later, Alec had a relapse.

He came home looking drained as he usually did after an incident. In earlier years he would have white bandages wrapping his hands as he refused to heal quickly, needing the pain to stay as long as he could get. Now he used an Iratze every time so as not to scare their sons. The boys were already asleep so the shadowhunter was able to just collapse on the couch, laying his head on his husbands lap and relaxing slightly as a gentle hand ran through his hair.

Jace had texted the warlock earlier in the day, his parabatai bond letting him know what kind of day it would be. After confirmation about an hour before Alec got home, Magnus had gone around the loft and changed all the numbers to zero.

"We lost a new transfer today."

Magnus kept quiet, knowing to just let Alec speak.

"He grew up in Alicante, one of the bigger shadowhunter families. He thought he knew best and decided to ignore the team leader on a mission. He joined us a month ago, this wasn't the first time."

"You can't blame yourself for this Alexander. There's only so much you can control when it comes to people, especially shadowhunters. In case you haven't noticed, you're a very stubborn people."

Alec snorted lightly before burrowing his face into Magnus' stomach, muffling his words slightly.

"I can't help thinking that if I had just given him harsher consequences. If I hadn't let him participate in the mission-"

"Then maybe someone else would've done what he did. Maybe he would've snuck out and gotten himself killed anyway. There's no use thinking of what might have been, you know that."

Teary eyes looked up at feline ones as Magnus let his glamour fall.

"I love you. So much."

"I love you too my angel. Now we should probably get to sleep."

Alec smiled slightly as he sat up.

"Yeah, Raziel knows we won't be sleeping in tomorrow if the kids have anything to say about it."

Sure enough, the couple were woken up by their warlock child climbing into there bed at a little past 6 in the morning asking for food. Magnus got up to make it (by hand because he didn't ALWAYS summon their food) while Max snuggled up with his other father.

Little eyes catching on the whiteboard and the big zero displayed on it, Max frowned and looked down at Alec.

"Daddy, did you forgot to take care of yourself yesterday?"

"Yes I did forGET yesterday." Alec said, smiling softly at his youngest, ruffling his blue hair while being careful of his little horns. "But don't worry Blueberry, I'll keep trying."

"I know!"

There was a sort of battle cry as Rafael charged towards them from the doorway. Alec only just managed to move Max off of him before the five year old jumped onto him, forcing the air out of him.

"Why do you have to go to work all the time? You weren't even home before bedtime last night!" Rafe exclaimed, a serious look on his face as though this was the worst thing that could ever happen.

"Well, you know how important my job is."

"That's what happened!" the young warlock shouted, pointing at the whiteboard even as he tried to shove his adoptive brother out of his spot in their Dad's lap. "Daddy forgot to come home to eat supper which is taking care of himself so he got a zero and has to count again."

Alec couldn't help but laugh at the seriousness of the children.

"Okay guys, calm down. I'm going to try and be better from now on. For the moment though, Papa is making breakfast, can you smell it?"

Both of them were off his lap in an instant and tearing down the hall. 

"No running in the house!" he called after them before getting dressed.

He came out to find the boys fighting over which forks they want to use (they didn't even want the same one so Alec didn't really understand why they were arguing) while his husband was at the stove making pancakes, scrambled eggs, and breakfast sausages.

"Ah Alexander," they kissed which got the boys to take a break from their squabble to say 'ewwww' (they kissed again just for that). "Would you mind making some toast?"

Alec smiled and moved to put the toast in before coming back to wrap his arms around his husband's waist and bury his face in the juncture of Magnus' neck.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For everything."

Alec never thought he'd be this lucky. He always thought that he'd be trapped in a loveless marriage with some random shadowhunter woman from an acceptable family, with 2.5 kids that he'd be expected to treat more like soldiers than children. Now here he was, out and proud with an amazing husband and two incredibly unique children that never failed to make him smile even on his darkest days. Even with all his issues, he didn't think he'd change a thing.


End file.
